Electric light flickered over household tools, kitchen appliances, buckets, towels, and a host of other odd and ends spread over Felix’s desk, nightstand, and floor. Eight-o'clock Delvathon Classics crackled on the radio, currently playing an upbeat song with a hot ‘let’s get stuff done’ tempo. Bii snoozed on the windowsill. Five boiled spineharrows lay in a row under Felix’s bed, like a gang of boogiemen ready to permanently traumatize a child.

Felix cradled his relic in a blanket and wore mittens to avoid frosting his fingers. White shards littered his surroundings. A poof of stability fragment dust took into the air, when Felix leaned to blow on his relic. He adjusted the angle of the steak knife, and continued working on the seam between icewood and absorbsrhoom in teensy see-saws, careful not to damage either relic.

“Is it okay to talk, or will you be disturbed?” Linda whispered from the doorway.

Felix kept his focus on the relic, and whispered back, “Come on in. You want a spineharrow? They make wonderful bedroom decorations.”

“Heh. No thank you.” Linda came to watch Felix’s work, holding a sketchbook behind her back. “Need help?”

“Nah. This part is a one-person job, but I could use a second pair of hands tomorrow.”

“Mhm.” Linda continued to watch, shifting her balance back and forth—obviously gathering courage. “Hey, so I was sketching.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Here in my notebook.” Linda took it from behind her back.

Felix nodded.

“I say sketching, but it’s more of a schematic. You said I could help, so I started thinking, how else could you improve the absorbshroom muscles or the bones. But absorbsrhoom isn’t a muscle. It’s closer to a rope, which can store and release tension. That’s where I got the idea to do this. Ignore the doodles about icewood, those are no good.”

Linda’s sketchbook opened on a double spread of various braiding styles, sketches of dolls made from braided limbs, and historical quotes about the benefits of braiding rope. One corner also had sketches of jointed icewood dolls.

“Braiding is an old technique that’s been around for thousands of years, which means the concept is etched deep into the Abyss,” Linda added.

Felix scratched his chin with a mitten, studying her work. “It’s a solid concept. It could work.”

“But?”

“But, I might not finish disassembling the relic until tomorrow morning. Then comes two day soak in the floaty water. Another day of lacquering them with stability fragments, maybe two. After the domain transformation, I’ll have at best four days to get used to the new relic.” Felix gave the notes back.

“That’s no problem!” Linda announced cheerily. “I promised I’d help. I can do the braiding, and help lacquer.”

Felix hesitated. A single mistake on this project could cost him the copper torch. He didn’t doubt Linda’s know-how, or practical skills, but could she pull it off without delaying the lacquering step?

“Is that a no?” Linda frowned. “I would be super careful.”

“I know. Time is the big but.” His brows furrowed. What miffed him was that the idea was great. In any other circumstance, he’d have jumped on it, but now…

“I can make a replica from wire tonight, can you then let me do it?”

Felix blinked at his baby sister. “You wanna help that much?”

“Of course.” She nodded vehemently. “You’re my favorite brother, and I wanna help you finally get that torch.” She blushed at her own honesty and took her sketchbook. “Okay. I’ll knock on your door later bye!”

Favorite brother. Felix drummed his feet to the Delvathon Classics a little more enthusiastically than usual.

He didn’t notice any knocking that night. However, near midnight, when Felix went to prepare for bed, he opened the door to find a small doll of braided wires sitting outside. It had a smiley face, and held a small note.

Wake me up when you start working tomorrow.

Goodnight,

Linda.

Next day, Linda sat on the floor with Felix. Her tongue poked out in a face of ultimate concentration, while she cut the gooey absorbshroom webbing into individual cords for her to braid. Meanwhile, Felix struggled to figure out how to make floating water not float out of a bucket.

Trash bags and tape were the answer. Getting the water into the bag turned out to be a bigger problem.

It wouldn’t come out of the canister. It couldn’t be siphoned safely, since it was Abyssal water. Displacing it with oil just made the water cling to the sides of the canister. Soaking a rag in it was fine, but getting the water off of the rag was nigh impossible. Nothing seemed to work, and Felix refused to spend a day spooning it into the bag. There had to be a smarter way to do it.

By dinner, when Linda finished braiding the absorbshroom into a big boneless rope-doll, Felix was still wrestling with the Byss damned floaty water being as cooperative as bonk’s butt sweat.

Linda’s old ‘Physics: The natural laws of the Surface’ sat open on Felix’s lap as he ate, and an hour afterwards. First idea the book gave him was a vacuum siphon, which did not work with plastic bags. Second was to let capillary force fill straws up, and then squirt them into the bag, but that was just a fancy alternative for using a spoon.

Eight p.m. Felix tried to lure the water to float into the bag by playing music behind it. Sadly, the floaty waters weren’t attracted to human music.

Half past eight, Felix scoured all of mom’s work cabinets for a baking syringe or pipette or any other instrument that might save him. No dice.

In the end, when frustration and desperation reached their peak, Felix cut the canisters apart using pliers and peeled water into the trash bag. Neither Hannes nor Felix’s wallet approved of the broken canisters. And yes, spooning would’ve been faster, but at least Felix kept his dignity.

Letting them soak for a day was kind of relaxing. Felix spent the day dissecting spineharrows and goofing around with their parts.

He tried binding tiny pieces of spineharrows, but even a single spine made his head scream with a foreign impulse—an irresistible need for darker places. After unbinding the relic, Felix found himself under the bed with other spineharrows. Not a great experience. Felix marked the spineharrow relics down as having a strong and difficult temperament, which was a shame, since he had a few fun ideas for what to make of them.

For the following two days, the main project progressed smoothly. Both relics had absorbed the floaty properties of the water, causing many a hurrah. Even lacquering was a breeze with Linda's aid. Three months’ salary of chips melted on a pan into a thick goop, which they then painted on the relic. Problems arose the day after.

The lacquer wouldn't dry up.

"What if we put it in the oven?" Linda asked.

Felix shook his head. “It’ll melt right off again.”

“The logs didn’t have other tips?”

“No, I kinda assumed this bit would be simple.” Felix twirled his hair, ideas shooting through his head as fast as they were shot down. He did actually know a way to solve the issue. A simple machine could do it in five minutes. Problem was, he really, really didn’t want to talk to the person who owned it.

Sounds of laughter carried from the living room above. Door slammed shut. Two voices conversed in urgent tones, Hannes and Marja. She might have a solution!

“I’m heading upstairs!” Felix all but bounded through the hatch and into the living room, Bii hot on his tail. “Hey! Marja, can I ask you something?”

Marja and hannes bolted to sit upright on the couch. Their hair and clothes were a complete mess. Oops.

“Felix, I thought you two went out with mother,” said Hannes, looking like a startled rabbit.

“Apparently not.” Marja buttoned up her frilly blouse, pulled down her skirt, and flashed Felix the kind of cold smile that promised a cruel end to the poor fools who stood in her way. “Felix, how may I be of assistance?”

“Uh. I can come back later.” Felix pointed downstairs and took a retreating step.

She flicked her wrist, scoffing dismissively. “Nonsense. No better time like the present. Take. A. Seat.”

“I really could come back later,” Felix protested, but took the bench opposite to their couch. Hannes gave him the stink eye, and Marja’s glare wasn’t much better. The bench had never felt so uncomfortable. Bii, the clever little weasel, hid behind a potted plant.

“Now,” Majra spoke slowly, “please do explain, what is of such urgency that it simply had to intrude upon me finally succeeding in being taken by your hot dense-skulled boy-scout of a brother?”

Lords! They were… Felix’s ears flared red hot, and he suddenly found the denizen-fur carpet on the floor incredibly fascinating. Across him, Hannes sat frozen, his face a tomato. Felix gave him a cautious thumbs up under the table, so that Marja couldn’t see. Good job, brother!

Thank you, Hannes’ nod seemed to say.

“Do you want to keep that thumb?” Marja asked. “If so. Speak.”

“Sorry!” Felix raised his hands up. “Alright. I had a little issue with stabilization fragment lacquer not solidifying…” Felix explained the steps he had used in melting and applying it. “...I was hoping you might have a solution.”

“Hmm.” Majra leaned back, a finger tapping her delicate chin. “Sounds like a case of stability fragment contamination. They only solidify at one-hundred percent purity. Your Abyssal water must’ve mixed with the lacquer. Personally, I would use a fluid manipulation relic to keep the two separate until the lacquer has dried.”

Hands crossed in prayer, Felix gave Marja his strongest hopeful plea stare.

Marja averted her gaze, sighing. “Unfortunately, I cannot help you. The guild has my schedules fully booked. Rest assured, this is not a case of petty revenge. It is a lengthy procedure to do, given the level of precision required.”

“Yeah, I understand. It’s fine.” Felix deflated on his chair. “Uuurgh.”

“Oh, about the note from the Abyss. Your brother mentioned it in the passing, and I thought I’d heard of the Hollow Conservatory from somewhere. Indeed I did. It is an old commune of denizen lovers from the second century. Apparently, the place is currently run by a lead torch, who’s working with Downward Initiative, a multinational and multi-guild project related to helping humans adapt to living in the Abyss. I do not know about this person ‘S’, but based on the accusations they laid against Lady Sofie, they may well be a rebel attempting to sabotage the research. This could be their recruitment letter.”

“A recruitment letter...” Felix had perked up at first, but now fell into deep thought. He glanced at Bii, who peeked at him from behind the potted plant. “Could Bii really be a foreign agent?”

“Bibii!” Bii shook his head innocently.

No way was he a spy. An innocent messenger then? This was a lot to think about, and most of it sounded like business way over Felix’s head. Moreover, he had no time to be getting involved with conspiracies. Interviews happened next Friday, four days from. Yeah, he felt bad for putting off repaying his debt to Bii, but his future was on the line here.

“Thank you Marja, for looking this up.”

“You’re welcome. Would you like for me to report the case to authorities?”

“Eh, no need. This probably isn’t anything urgent.”

“As you wish. Now, if that is everything…” Marja tapped fingers to her knee.

Felix took the cue to leave. “Yup. That’s all. Bii, come along, let’s go get Linda and take a walk.”

“Smart boy. You could learn some things from your brother, Hannes.” Marja fixed a fierce gaze on Hannes, who was barely able to meet it.

“Hm. Such as?”

“Such as the proper timing for a gentleman to go downstairs.”

Felix heard the whisper while climbing down. He grabbed Linda and evacuated the building seconds before it caught fire.

“What were they doing? Did you see what they were doing?” Linda asked, glancing backwards at the house.

“Just holding hands.”

“Pah. Typical Hannes.” Linda sighed, crossing her arms. “He should make a move before she gets bored. A high-class lady like Marja won’t wait forever.”

Felix held back a snerk and took a turn towards Cliff Street. “Oh, don’t you worry. She seemed the type to tell him, when she needs something.”

“She better. Felix, where are we going? I thought we’d go window shopping.”

“Well…” Felix adjusted his already loose collar. He wanted to go anywhere but Cliff Street. Anywhere, but to meet that person again. “But first, dearest little who I don’t appreciate nearly often or intensely enough, could I ask for the smallest of favors?”

“You don’t appreciate me often enough?” Linda gave him a hurt look.

“No, no, no. I do. I do my best. What I meant to say was that you deserve even more. Anyhow, there’s this thingamajig that could solve my lacquer issues with the flick of a switch. However, I would need to ask to borrow it from a person, who I’d rather not speak to ever again. So, I was wondering, if you—”

Linda raised a brow. “If I’d ask them in your stead?”

“Cha-chang. Bingo!” Felix shot her with finger guns.

Linda returned a deadpan stare.

“Hey, this is a serious dilemma!”

Linda mimed his voice. “Ask him yourself. You ask. Why don’t you ask him yourself.”

“Okay, fair, but this is completely different. Help your favorite brother out,” Felix pleaded.

“Good try.” Linda grinned mischievously. “Still no. Let this be a lesson. What goes around comes around.”

Linda’s dumb lesson kept marinading in Felix’s thoughts, as he walked past a spotless garden with wilted early summer flowers. He cursed the little lesson up until to the point he rang Mrs. Gunhild’s doorbell.

Felix expected a middle finger and a tirade of verbal violence. Even a surprise attack on his life was a possibility. However, what happened when Mrs. Gunhild opened the door was infinitely worse.